Chapter 314
“That can’t be right. That cliff has been thoroughly explored long ago. Are you saying there’s a path there?”
“But it’s certain that there is.”
Though still far away and unable to confirm it clearly, Yu-hyun definitely saw a golden light shining from the cliff.
It wasn’t a hallucination caused by the blizzard. In fact, the world’s whiteness made the golden light even more vivid.
Lean still couldn’t believe that Yu-hyun said there was a path there.
The most plausible explanation was that Yu-hyun had seen an illusion.
“Let’s go.”
“No. It will only waste our time.”
“We have nothing to lose anyway.”
“If we want to be the first to reach our destination and scout the surroundings, we need to keep moving immediately.”
Yu-hyun sighed at Lean’s stubbornness.
“I understand that you don’t believe what I’m saying, but I don’t lie about these things.”
“…”
“Then let me ask you this. You said this place had been fully explored long ago, but did you explore it yourself?”
Lean hesitated for a moment before shaking his head.
“No. But even if I didn’t personally check, many exploration teams have been through here. More importantly, Emperor Frechen frequently roamed these areas. If there was a path, they would have found it.”
“So you’ve never seen it yourself? Then let’s take this chance to check it out.”
Lean struggled to find words to persuade Yu-hyun, but Yu-hyun didn’t wait for him and moved ahead.
‘Why is he so certain?’
Lean felt doubtful due to Yu-hyun’s confident actions. Could it be that Kaira’s arrangement was finally revealing itself?
Yu-hyun was the first to come this far. Previously, Kaira had lived only inside the Gard.
Considering that, it was possible. Yet, the perception solidified over the past 32 years wasn’t easily changed.
However, if her words were true, then maybe…
Lean decided to follow Yu-hyun. Given Yu-hyun’s stubborn attitude, it seemed unlikely he would give up without physical force, and using force in such a place was suicidal.
Yu-hyun stood before the massive ice cliff.
When he looked up, the height was dizzying. It seemed to exceed 500 meters.
‘The width is… endless.’
The ice cliff stretched beyond his sight, with no end in sight. It wasn’t just a mountain range frozen by the Curse of the Frozen Land; it was like a tectonic shift had created a division.
Walking along the cliff would make it hard to see the end. The map showed a long boundary line.
“See? There’s no entrance here.”
As Lean said this, he examined the smooth ice wall sharply, wondering if there really was an entrance he had missed.
He inspected the smooth ice wall meticulously but found no cracks or gaps.
Just as Lean was about to tell Yu-hyun that he had been mistaken and that they should speed up their march, Yu-hyun acted strangely. Standing alone in front of the ice wall, he caressed it with his hand.
Lean chided him.
“There’s no entrance just by touching it.”
“No.”
Yu-hyun drew his sword. Before Lean could ask what he was doing, Yu-hyun thrust his sword into the wall.
Thunk.
The sword penetrated the seemingly solid ice wall with surprising ease.
Immediately, the surrounding ice around the sword cracked thinly and shattered like glass.
“There’s an entrance.”
“What…!”
Lean stared in disbelief at the newly formed entrance.
How? When? An entrance in such a place? But it had never been discovered before.
Ignoring the bewildered Lean, Yu-hyun entered the newly formed entrance.
Lean hurriedly followed.
“Wait! How did you find this entrance?”
“Is that important right now?”
“Answer me!”
“I saw it.”
“Saw it?”
“Yes. I saw it with my eyes. When I got closer, I felt something different.”
“Could it be Kaira’s arrangement?”
Now he was mentioning Kaira’s arrangement, which he had denied until now.
Yu-hyun, tired of affirming, replied nonchalantly.
“Maybe.”
“…”
Lean scrutinized the entrance area with a sinking gaze.
What Yu-hyun broke was a thin layer of ice on the surface, which could be called a door. After removing that layer, a narrow path, just wide enough for a person to pass through, unfolded inside.
How could this path have been unnoticed? So many people had come and gone through here without discovering it.
Lean ran his hand over the entrance.
This was not something naturally formed.
“Now that we’ve found it, are you just going to stand there?”
“Let’s go in.”
Beyond the mountain range lay an unknown space. To confirm this place, they would have had to detour the ice cliff from afar.
Doing so wouldn’t just take a few days but at least over a month.
The exploration team didn’t have the food and stamina to keep moving in this harsh environment for over a month.
The inside of the path was dark, but not to the point of being indistinguishable. Moreover, the path was straight, leaving no doubt about where to go.
The towering ice walls sometimes shone pale blue, other times emerald green.
It was as if the aurora had descended to the ground.
Yu-hyun, while passing by, brushed his hand over the wall and noticed something inside, making him stop.
“This is…”
Inside the translucent ice wall, there was something. Squinting to see more clearly, Yu-hyun involuntarily stepped back.
Lean, curious about what Yu-hyun had seen, looked at the wall and widened his eyes.
“This… is crazy.”
There were people.
People frozen to death inside the ice wall. Most appeared to be in the midst of fleeing, carrying their belongings.
When the Curse of the Frozen Land spread from the north 32 years ago, these people had been swept away while escaping over the mountains.
Thousands, at least.
Considering the width of this ice cliff, there were likely many more bodies unseen.
The path, which had appeared beautiful at first glance, was a graveyard for those who couldn’t escape the curse.
“Let’s keep moving.”
Yu-hyun urged Lean to keep walking.
The path through the gorge extended over 3 kilometers. At the far end, a pure white light marked the exit. But beyond that, Yu-hyun felt an even stronger golden light.
‘The fragment is beyond there.’
The fragment they had been searching for was close, but Yu-hyun felt more apprehension than excitement. It was an almost instinctive sense that beyond there, along with the fragment, lay tremendous danger.
As they reached the exit, both Yu-hyun and Lean noticed something unusual.
Near the exit was a small mound of snow piled unusually high compared to the surrounding area.
“Look at this.”
“…There’s something here.”
Yu-hyun dug through the snow with his sword. Inside, he found the burnt remains of a rune stone and various miscellaneous items.
Yu-hyun and Lean’s expressions turned cold.
They both understood what they were seeing without speaking.
“Someone has been here.”
“And it wasn’t that long ago.”
Someone had stayed here for a while. No, the evidence showed they had stayed here for a long time.
Not once, but at least over ten times.
The entrance, which had felt unnatural, wasn’t naturally formed but had been artificially concealed.
This meant only one thing.
There was a traitor within the Gard.
Yu-hyun held back from saying it out loud, knowing Lean was present. Lean surely understood as well, and no one was more troubled than him at this moment.
‘But if there is a traitor, it explains why the source of the Curse of the Frozen Land hasn’t been found in the past 32 years. Even though the northern continent is vast, someone should have found it.’
An internal traitor.
A traitor who had been operating for a long time.
Yu-hyun suddenly thought of Frechen. Lean had mentioned that his men frequented this place the most.
‘No. It’s too early to be certain. First, we need to see what’s beyond there.’
Yu-hyun checked on Lean’s condition. He was staring at the marks near the exit with a shadowed face. He seemed like a bomb about to explode, or something that could collapse at any moment.
He looked as if he wanted to cry but couldn’t.
“Let’s go.”
Yu-hyun grabbed Lean’s wrist.
Despite his surprise, Lean didn’t shake off Yu-hyun’s hand.
“Instead of wasting time worrying about this, let’s go inside and see what’s there. It’s the best we can do now.”
“…Right. That’s true.”
Lean nodded with a face that looked almost on the verge of tears.
They walked across the wide, white expanse beyond the gorge exit.
Unlike other places they had traveled, which were filled with large rocks and ice mountains, this area was a strangely barren white wasteland.
The ground was so clear that they could see their reflections.
‘No, this is a lake?’
Yu-hyun realized they were walking on a frozen lake.
Lean seemed to notice too, as his voice grew more excited.
“This is… Andollim Lake.”
“Andollim Lake?”
“Yes. It’s known as the largest lake in the northern continent, near the Franzgard Empire’s capital.”
“If it’s close to the capital…”
Yu-hyun looked around. Somewhere nearby must be the capital of the empire where Frechen lived.
But that wasn’t the immediate concern. Yu-hyun felt the fragment’s light growing closer.
The direction was north. He wasn’t sure if it was exactly north, but it felt that way.
They walked across the frozen lake.
It felt like a split world stretched above and below them, and another world lay below the ice.
If this place was the world of the curse, was the world below the ice the world of salvation?
The paths were connected but never met. Perhaps they would always run parallel.
The cursed reality and the dream of salvation.
What would lie at the end of this journey?
“The snow stopped?”
As they finished crossing Andollim Lake, the relentless snowstorm ceased. Even the wind stopped blowing.
A cold, clear space devoid of even a speck of dust.
What filled the place was a thick, spreading fog.
‘It’s cold.’
As soon as Yu-hyun put his hand into the fog, the chilling sensation made his skin crawl.
This wasn’t ordinary fog. It was made of tiny particles of extreme cold, floating in the air like mist.
‘It’s not impassable, but we can’t stay long.’
Yu-hyun looked at Lean, who nodded resolutely.
The two stuck close together as they entered the icy fog. If they separated, finding each other would be difficult.
The fog, already thick from the outside, dulled their sense of direction inside.
Letting their guard down for a moment could result in freezing to death on the spot.
Yet, they kept moving, guided by a golden beacon visible through the fog.
Yu-hyun stopped suddenly. Lean didn’t ask why.
They both looked up.
‘What is this…’
A deep, rumbling breath echoed through the space, hurting their ears.
A massive giant, towering so high it was dizzying, knelt with one knee on the ground, its head bowed in slumber.
It was a frost giant, but far larger than any they had seen before.
Its size was incomprehensible. If sitting, its height was over 200 meters.
Moreover, the aura emanating from the giant was extraordinary.
As the giant exhaled, thick fog spewed from its mouth.
‘Is all this fog from its breath?’
Yu-hyun was astonished that the giant’s mere exhalation could cause such severe frostbite.
Lean was equally shocked, staring up at the giant.
Despite the obscuring breath and fog, Lean seemed to recognize the giant’s face.
Yu-hyun eventually noticed a large, red jewel glowing in the giant’s chest, emitting a golden light, and quietly stepped back.
‘We need to retreat.’
‘Agreed.’
Lean concurred. There was nothing more they could do here.
They navigated through the fog. Though disoriented, Yu-hyun led them out by keeping his back to the golden light, ensuring a direct path.
Crossing back over Andollim Lake, Yu-hyun finally let go of his tension.
“What was that just now?”
“Why…”
“Lean. You recognized that giant, didn’t you?”
When Lean saw the giant, his expression was mixed with complex emotions beyond just discovering a huge frost giant.
Even in his confusion, Yu-hyun noticed Lean’s reaction.
“…It’s not something to hide. I’ve seen that giant before.”
“You’ve seen it? That enormous frost giant?”
“Yes.”
Lean turned to face the direction of the giant, beyond the fog.
“That giant is a Divine Spirit who should have passed its power to its successor and disappeared.”